Scholars Mount Sweeping Effort to Measure Effects of Affirmative Action in Higher Education

By PETER SCHMIDT

The affirmative-action programs at the nation's public colleges and professional schools are about to undergo a kind of scrutiny they have long managed to avoid: intensive research that examines whether they actually help the minority students who are their intended beneficiaries.

A national consortium of about 20 professors and 10 graduate students has been collecting student data from colleges, law schools, and state bar associations — typically by invoking state